AN IRISH scientist who was among the first in the world to study the moon rocks brought back by the Apollo 11astronauts is still directly involved in human space-flight research, with a new experiment ready to be carried aloft this Saturday by the space shuttle Endeavour, writes DICK AHLSTROM
Denis O’Sullivan, emeritus professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, has had an unbroken involvement in space research dating back to the 1960s. Although retired, he continues to work with Nasa, the European Space Agency, Russia and Japan.
Berkeley University in the US came looking for him in 1969 when its physics department was preparing to receive some of the Apollo 11moon rocks.
Prof O’Sullivan had completed a PhD at the institute and at the Cern nuclear physics centre near Geneva, and by the late 1960s was a recognised world expert in high-energy cosmic rays, natural but powerful radiation that constantly bombards us from deep space.
“I was invited to Berkeley to set up a new department to exploit the new physics possibilities soon to be realised, as Nasa prepared to land people on the moon in 1969,” he says. Prof Buford Price would head the department and the two worked on the moon rocks for two years. Scientists had learned that cosmic rays were powerful enough to leave visible tracks in tiny crystals locked in the rocks. The tracks could tell them what cosmic rays were like without the protection we have from Earth’s atmosphere.
“For us, it was a big opportunity because it was the first time that cosmic rays from outside the atmosphere could be analysed,” he says. “We also measured the erosion rate of the moon’s surface for the first time using cosmic rays.”
His expertise in this field was also extremely valuable from the point of view of astronaut safety. These rays deliver a radiation dose which can be quite high. Space agencies from around the world have asked him to conduct experiments to measure the doses received by humans in space.
He is a senior collaborator in the soon-to-be-completed Matroschka or “Russian Doll” project, which saw the development of a human model carried both inside and outside the International Space Station (ISS).
"The main aim of that project was to assess the effect of cosmic rays on human organs," says O'Sullivan. His work in the area continues. He has a share in an experiment on board Endeavourthat will be installed in the ISS's Columbus module next week to map cosmic-ray exposure.
“We have done very well with Nasa, Esa and the Russians and I am putting an experiment on a Japanese satellite that will be launched in six months’ time,” he says.